Techart TZE-01 is the world's first Sony E to Nikon Z AF lens adapter

Chinese accessory maker Techart has announced the TZE-01, the first autofocus adapter for using Sony E-mount lenses with Nikon's Z series cameras. Techart describes the adapter's design as having been 'difficult' due to the Nikon Z-mount's flange distance being just 2mm shorter than the Sony E-mount.

The Techart TZE-01 features a PCB sandwiched between the electronic connectors on both sides of the adapter, making it possible to use both the Sony E-mount Auto Aperture and Auto Focus lens functions, even when using the Nikon Z's Face & Eye detection mode.

The TZE-01 finds room for a PCB to 'translate' between the Nikon and Sony communication protocols, allowing Nikon cameras to autofocus E-mount lenses.

Depending on which Sony E-mount lens is used, Techart claims its adapter allows the use of phase-detect AF to offer autofocus accuracy and speed 'very close to (if not better) [than] native Z-mount lenses.' The company claims other functions, including lens-based image stabilization are also supported.

Performance varies between lenses but if it's generally up to a reasonable standard, this adapter considerably broadens the lens choices for Nikon users. It could also significantly lower the barrier to changing systems for Sony users, if Nikon produces a body they're interested in.

The company says it adapter works with Sony E-mount AF lenses from Sigma, Sony, and Tamron / Zeiss. The adapter is shipped with a lens dock for firmware upgrades that will add additional lens support in the future. The TZE-01 adapter is available to purchase for $249 USD from TechartPro.com.

Techart unveils the World’s First Sony E to Nikon Z Autofocus Adapter with a thickness of 2mm

Guangzhou China, Jun 20, 2019 – Techart, who has previously launched the first autofocus adapter for manual lenses, has unveiled another groundbreaking product, Techart Sony E to Nikon Z Autofocus Adapter (TZE-01). The new TZE-01 is the world’s first autofocus adapter that allows Sony E-mount lenses to retain the Automatic Focus functionality when used on Nikon Z6 and Z7 cameras.

The flange distance of Nikon Z-mount is only 2mm shorter than Sony E-mount. This makes the design extremely difficult, let alone an electronic adapter where a chip and the connector pins have to be squeezed into. Techart has managed to pull it off and develop one which include connectors of both sides and a PCB board with chip to “translate” the protocol of the lens and the camera.

The Techart adapter enables both Auto Focus & Auto Aperture functions of Sony E mount lenses to be used on Nikon Z6 and Z7. AF-S, AF-C & MF mode are supported in both still & video shooting. The incredible Face & Eye Detection of Z-mount cameras can also be used. Other functions like lens vibration reduction and timelapse can also be used. Phase-detect Autofocus is adopted to guarantee both AF accuracy and speed to be very close to (if not better) native Z-mount lenses. Please note that functionality may vary when different E-mount lenses are used.

Nikon Z system is a relatively new system and users do not have a very complete lenses selection. Unlike the system of Sony, most lenses manufacturers have been releasing lenses in E-mount and so the selection is complete. The new Techart adapter currently supports most of the Sony, Sigma, Tamron & Zeiss AF lenses with Sony E mounts including some of the best sellers like Tamron 28-75mm, Batis 25mm f/2, Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM and Sigma 35mm f/1.4, etc.

The new Techart TZE-01 adapter comes with a lens dock for firmware upgrade. Simply connect the PC/MAC via a Micro USB cable (not included) and the firmware can be updated via the Techart App. Techart is currently working to support more lenses.

Pricing and Availability

The Techart Sony E to Nikon Z Autofocus Adapter is currently available for pre-order at our official website (http://www.techartpro.com). The recommended retail price before tax is USD 249/pc. Free shipping will be provided during the promotion period. Delivery will start from late June. 1-year warranty is included.

Nice to see Nikon has learnt, and with the shortest register distance of all the FF cameras it can theoretically have adaptors for any FF lens, mirrorless or SLR. The Nikon SLR mount has the longest register distance of the SLR generation, so you could put Nikon lenses on Canon but not the other way round.Nikon has put everything into the Z series and it shows.

Why would there be more vignetting on Nikon FF bodies? Do Nikon bodies use a larger sensor than Sony FF bodies?

Canon EOS users have been able to adapt Nikon F lenses to their EOS bodies ever since the EOS system was introduced because the EF-mount has a 44mm flange distance compared to the F-mount's 46.5mm flange distance. This allows Canon users to use F-mount lenses with an adapter. The EF mount has a 54mm throat diameter while the F mount only has a 44mm throat diameter; the F mount has a MUCH smaller throat diameter than Canon's EF mount! But that doesn't mean that Nikon F lenses vignette because Nikon F lenses-- just like Canon EF lenses-- are designed for FF. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether you mount Nikon F lenses on a Canon body (with adapter) or a Nikon body. The lenses behave the same (optically) in both circumstances.

Darn it! I thought there would be interesting Sony wide angle zooms, but they are no where as good as either my Laowa 12mm, my Tamron 15-30mm F2.8 or the Nikon 14-30mm F4 because of quite serious vignetting. It is corrected on a Sony body. Sharpness decreses a lot towards edges. These guys show test results with and without in-camera corrections: https://opticallimits.com/sonyalphaff/1017-sony1224f4g?start=1

OK Milc,Hasa, no, the 14-30 is similar in performance to the 12-24 Sony according to Jim Kasson’s side by side tests which include full images. I thought that was great news from Jim, as I have always thought the Sony 12-24 to be very good.

By all means then buy it. The 12-24 is nothing compared to my Laowa 12mm that has virtually no distortion and 1/2 the vignetting of the Sony @ F4. @15mm - 24mm my Tamron 15-30 is a clear winner, but HEAVY. @ 24mm my nikon 24mm F1.8 blasts the Sony to smithereens, and it is light. However I might get the Techart adapter just to get the "Laowa Magic Shift Converter", that is Sony mount. I will wait a tiny bit longer however, to see if Laowa comes out with a revised adapter for Z.

T3- here’s the thing, we are with MILC man off topic. The thread is about a Nikon adaptor for E mount. The past few posts are just what always happens if any one dare suggests that Sony may not be all you hope it is. Sony cameras are the best and will destroy the competition. For the rest of us, we will carry on buying other brands that come with the no need to constantly defend or justify my self guarantee, or the need to bite any time some one suggests an alternative pragmatic world where Sony is just another manufacturer, just another choice and in practical terms does not take better photos than say a Nikon D850 or 5D mkiv

Behave yourself Terkwoiz! It is called "choice" - no need for Presidential spelling here. I for one always compare prime alternatives to benchmark a zoom. it is "buying choice" - "stuff in bag and bring along choice" - all depending on factors such as usecase, funding and handling. A high quality zoom may indeed rival primes at the same F-stop. A recent example for mirrorless is the 24-70 F2.8 Nikon S. @24mm it may vey well rival or be better than any 24 that Nikon has made up to now. We shall see :-)

hasa, his point is that you keep trying to compare apples to oranges, and he's right about that.

you came out here spouting off false claims about the fe12-24 vs. the Nikon 14-30, when they aren't even the same focal length... even if the 14-30 was as good as the 12-24, which it isn't, the fact that sony did what they did at 12mm is a greater accomplishment than doing it at 14mm, due to the complexity of lens designs... that's one big reason why the 12-24 is better than the Nikon 14-30.

MILCI have no issues with you defending the Sony 12-24 as it is a very good lens. But saying that it’s better than the 14-30 is a stretch as the 14-30 is lighter and can take filters, which no other manufacturer has done. Also every review that has shot them side by side says they are on par with each other, as the 12-24 is compared to the 14-30 at 14mm. So the 12-24 goes down to 12mm, and the 14-30 goes to 30 and takes filters.

MILC...I was trying to be polite with you and I was basically agreeing with you regarding HASA's statement.I even corrected and redirected my original statement to him after you pointed it out.As far as false statements, let me clarify for all...the 14-30 is THE ONLY LENS THAT TAKES FILTERS NATIVELY IN THE FRONT AND DOES NOT HAVE TO USE A CLUDGY FILTER ADAPTER TO USE FILTERS. Thats like saying cars don't have airplane wings and you argue that you can strap some on so they do.As far as the Sigma, it does not take all filters as many filters are not available nor are the convenient to use.By your argument, you failed to state that the 14-30 is 30 at the long end making it better than the Sony offering.Again, I was not disagreeing with you, in fact I said numerous times that the Sony was a great lens and that I was pleased that the Nikon performed similarly.Maybe next time read my statements and slow down your vitriol.

canon camera sales are dropping like a rock, and they put themselves into the position of having to support four different lens mounts.

Note, camera sales are dropping like a rock, the market is shrinking, there is more choice of FF mirrorless, lenses, heavy discounts and promotions across the board. People are hanging on to their gear longer, many buy 1-2 kit like lenses for the life of the product. It’s the prosumer / professional photographers who buy the more expensive kit, not the M system either. Look at the average large sporting and news event and use one hand to count the Sony cameras and you will have fingers left over.

"Look at the average large sporting and news event and use one hand to count the Sony cameras and you will have fingers left over."

The Sony A9 was just released two years ago. Two years after Canon introduced their first pro EOS body, the EOS 1 in 1989, hardly any pros were using Canon EOS either. But by the mid to late 1990s, Canon had basically taken over the pro market.

"Note, camera sales are dropping like a rock, the market is shrinking, there is more choice of FF mirrorless, lenses, heavy discounts and promotions across the board."

The current ILC market is still about twice as large as it was when Canon introduced their EOS system in 1987. As for "heavy discounts and promotions across the board"...no, it's not across the board. All of Canon's and Nikon's recent intros have received discounts and promos due to poor sales. But Sony's recent intros (A7III, A6400) are still selling at regular price.

T3 just saying, not surprised to see your usual retort , my comment was narrow on scope, but- it remains the case and for the present at least that pros are continuing to use their canon gear.

Selling twice as much when sales are half as much as they were to is not a victory, but a sign of the shrinking times . Knock your self out with the hyperbole if you like if it gives you comfort but camera sales will keep on falling for a while yet and that is ugly for all manufacturers.

@George1958 - "for the present at least that pros are continuing to use their canon gear."

canon has already closed down their Jamestown nj service facility, in a effort to stem the bleeding, and they stated that they are changing their focus to B2B, instead of being a retail camera/printer company.

the writing is on the wall for canikon dslrs, people who want pro gear would be well advised to pay attention to the future, which is with milc, not canikon dslrs.

I expect no less from you MILC man, sales are falling for all, and contrary to popular culture photographers are not sheep that simply follow marketing propaganda, they choose.In short if mirrorless was so mission critical to success there would already be no DSLRS. I use mirrorless myself , I see no magic, there is nothing I do that is made better . The only reason Sony pushed mirrorless is because they could not see or make a DSLR that enough people wanted to buy. Just because Sony failed at DSLR does not mean others will. Now there is a smaller market, and more options things will get tougher for all.

@George1958 - "In short if mirrorless was so mission critical to success there would already be no DSLRS."

It's not an issue of it being "so mission critical." It's the fact that mirrorless is newer technology that does more, does better, and for less money than older DSLR technology. And yes, mirrorless will be replacing DSLRs. It's only a matter of time. But to expect that "there would already be no DSLRs" at this point in time is simply absurd. Even the changeover from film SLRs to DSLRs took several years. Sony just introduced their first pro FF body 2 years ago, Canon and Nikon just released their FF MILC last year! Stop being so short-sighted. The changeover will happen, but it won't happen in mere months. It will play out over the next several years. Old DSLRs will be retired. They will be replaced by the latest mirrorless bodies. And new photogs moving up the ranks will be opting for the latest mirrorless bodies, not DSLRs.

"At the same time, I had found out how much my Nikon kit would be worth at trade-in, and it was less than I expected...So the hassle and expense of switching to Sony was starting to seem rather intimidating,

Charlotte was feeling similar. She knew that she would need to replace her backup camera, Canon 5D Mark II fairly soon, but for now it was working fine and she didn’t have much of value that she could even trade in to soften the financial blow.

So during January and February, we put our Sony thoughts on the back-burner. We could switch later in the year maybe, and meanwhile we could save up for it.

Then two cameras died and everything changed."

I'd say it's typical. Cameras don't last forever. And people are willing to change if something better comes along. It's happened throughout history!

Yep DSLRS and mirrorless are dead, phones are the future. Sony is not doing so well with phone sales either. Plus or minus a few percentages on the back of a fire sale in a smaller over all market won’t save any one.

@George1958 - No, ILCs will always be around, and mirrorless is the replacement for DSLRs. That's why Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Leica, Fujifilm, and Olympus are all in the mirrorless game. Canon and Nikon will be cutting back on DSLRs as they pour more resources into mirrorless. Pentax is the only manufacturer that is still only with DSLRs. The writing is on the wall, clear as day: DSLRs are on the way out, and almost the entire industry has shifted to mirrorless.

Way out of touch with people milc man, there is nothing inevitable about the future , we don’t and can’t know that until we get there. You carry on reassuring yourself but if you need to keep defending your position that smacks of low confidence. As for high end, that is small volume high profit niche that Leica occupy, characterful quality gear that may be a good deal less technically able but people still buy it. Sony, it’s something else, high tech boxy bling with no style or substance, fantastic and capable but it even today it’s discounted or promoted in a way that Leica never is. It’s for the most part consumer kit with pretentious bragging rights . Sony is out of the race with smart phones, Samsung and huawei blow them out the water, even apple. Also tan at best.

MILC it, clearly you don’t understand irony, read your own regurgitated posts. It don’t help you are presumptuous about what I know too. Fair enough, if you want to be ignorant of those facts. Did you know every Sony shop in my home area has closed? That smacks of success, oh, I forgot Sony don’t care about the little people or large volume low value sales, that are of course going after the big money in marginal sales. It’s easy to see that. You are right, just looking at their line up says that, a row of APSC boxes from the now cheaper that ever low value A6000 inventory and it’s iterative successor, the various iterations of A7 mostly heavily discounted Is incongruent with your high value low volume sales.

@George1958 - "oh, I forgot Sony don’t care about the little people or large volume low value sales, that are of course going after the big money in marginal sales."

Sony does sell lower-priced cameras. But the problem that other camera brands are having is that those brands are *only* having success selling lower-priced cameras. Sony is different in that their higher-priced cameras have been selling very well:

At this hour, the 6th best selling ILC on Amazon is the $1999 Sony A7III (body only). The Canon and Nikon ILCs that outsell the A7III are much, much lower in price ($399-479 as package kits). In the top 50 best sellers, Sony is the only one with higher-priced cameras:

@T3 regarding discounts. When it comes to for example A9 and other pro Sonys. Sony has invited a lot of pros (yes CaNikon users) to spectacular 1-2 day events in the countries, all payed by Sony. They've also initiated heavily discounted cameras/lenses and and on top of that offered very luctrative purchase of the pros second hand equipment if they select Sony instead.

Why? They need to grow their pro market share, so intead of waitning they are heavily investing. Btw, sales of mirroless shrunk with 14,4% 12 months MAT in pcs, while incrreasing in value in my country.

@T3 again. Don't make any conclusions of Amazon sales how the total market look like. Canon & Nikon agreement on high end DSLR/ILC's doesnt make it profitable to sell CaNikon at all for Amazon. Moreover 2, Amazons marketplace isn't the best place to find high end products to the best price, and photographers know that.Moreover 3, though Amazon seems to be big, they are very small in big parts of the modern world.

@milc man. You are quite aggressive, right? As a matter of fact, I was probably the first one to reflect that you guys should be careful with drawing to big conclusions on the sales from BCN, cause it only covers 40% of the large household stores and online market. I.e. no photo retailers. Moreover it was based on weekly sales. After that Mr/Mrs T3 didnt respond any longer.

And regarding the "Sony invited pros". No one has come close to the events that Sony has done the last years. But yes it is an quicker way to buy market shares. You might know that there are people that physically counts camerabrands at large event, right?

@Bumblebees - most of your posts out here revolve around trying to argue with T3, when you should have been responding to the fake accounts that continually post false info about sony… so don't even try to pretend that you are impartial about this.

@Bumblebees - "No one has come close to the events that Sony has done the last years."

that is a totally unsubstantiated claim, and as such, it proves everything that I said.

The signs are all there. But people like yourself, of course, will just ignore the signs of Sony's rise. This happened back in the1990s too, when Nikon users ignored the rise of Canon. They said it wasn't happening and never would. Now we have the same denialist attitude towards Sony. People just never learn.

T3 - Sony's rise? In a period of falling demand and increased FF mirrorless alternatives? Every sale to Nikon, Canon, Panasonic sold is a sale that Sony did not get, not every one is convinced by the propaganda or the real world experience of Sony.All camera sales are buoyed by heavy discounts and promotions. There is nothing so outstanding about cameras that fundamentally do no more than other brands, e.i, take photographs with an IQ is indistinguishable from other mirrorless and DSLR brands? So it is with Sony, the spec sheets and tweaked metrics are of no importance and catch more photographers than photographs. You don't need to defend what is good.

Interesting inversion on your accusation of denial in others T3? You are boarding on delusional.

@George1958 - The ILC market today is still bigger than it was when Canon launched the EOS system in 1987. Also, the camera market isn't just about selling cameras. It's also about selling LENSES. Look at lens sales from 1965-2015:

As of 2015, the lens market was still WAAAAY above what it was back in the film era. Facts!

As for FF ILC, the A7III is the best selling FF mirrorless in the world, outselling all other FF mirrorless bodies combined. And it has done so without any discounting (unlike Canon and Nikon's bodies):

@George1958 - "There is nothing so outstanding about cameras that fundamentally do no more than other brands, e.i, take photographs with an IQ is indistinguishable from other mirrorless and DSLR brands?"

It's not just about IQ. It's also about other aspects of performance and features, such as face AF, shooting speed, IBIS, etc. Think about back in the film days. Did people upgrade or switch cameras due to differences in IQ? Of course not, because all film SLRs used film. People switched and upgraded for other aspects of performance other than IQ, just as people are doing today. Today's mirrorless cameras do things that DSLRs can't. I am a DSLR shooter who has moved to mirrorless because mirrorless simply does things my DSLR can't: huge focus coverage area, face/eye AF, fast frame rates, IBIS, real-time exposure preview, etc, in bodies that are significantly more compact than DSLRs. These are all huge advantages over DSLRs, which is why more and more people are switching every day.

T3. - we have seen all the selective data you use before, and of course the same old argument.

Note, I did not say the A7III was not the best seller, (for now, as you often say things change) As for discounts, the A7iii is like the rest of the Sony line up variously discounted in the UK, with offers and deals. Get real, in a contracting market you n need to work harder, and kudos to Sony for their near fire sales on older A6000 and A7 series. I sure that helped with that difficult to shift inventory.

@George1958 - Selective data? No, it's just data. And it's data that you want to ignore because you don't like what the data is telling you. That's called denial.

Clearly you are a person having trouble dealing with change. Sorry, but change happens. The only constant is change. Things are changing and you don't like it. That's okay. But denying the change is pointless and futile. And the change is only going to accelerate in the coming years. So you might as well prepare for it and accept it.

T3 - you don't see that your assertion that things change doesn't work for you and your polemics. you are the rigid one with your dogmas and confirmation bias about Sony. Seems you need to attach yourself to an idea in order to give yourself a sense of being on a winning side, and over a camera brand too.

How do you sleep at night worrying in case some one posts an anti Sony post?If you were so confident, and you are not, you would just ignore because according to you, Sony has nothing to worry about, the Sony juggernaut you once suggested, remember? fact is you might be one off a few people that maintains an unreasonable and disproportionate believe in something as trivial as a camera brand. No one will mind you having your bit of fun if you showed tolerance for other legitimate world views, but you don't.

T3 - echolalia , echolalia , echolalia. ~ Don't be such a prig, my sense of self and identify is not rested in a thing. You are the one tripped out your chord in case Sony does less well. I suspect your would open an new account perhaps T4, a more formidable terminator, some one who will go back to the past to destroy the Panasonic, Nikon and Canon chips that killed Sony's growth.

@T3 The camera market is dropping, period. Sony drops too but gains market shares due to that Nikon and Canon drops more. Now there are three strong pillars in the market compared with the past when there were only two pillars.But as I said, still in an aggressivly declining market.

The peak for camera sales depending on region was between 2010-2012. Now 2019 the market is 10 times less and still dropping with some 15-25% on yearly average. But asp (average selling price) is much higher, so the drop in value isnt as big as the volume. But still a significant drop.

The photomarket needs a big quantum leap in technique to make it interesting again. I mean there were mobile phones before 2006 (apple entry), but back then the new things was i.e. better battery capaciity, more games etc. With apple entry, the platform/app thinking opened up a new world.

@Bumblebees - Nikon and Canon are far more dependent on large camera sales volume than Sony is. Nikon more so than anyone. But both Canon and Nikon find themselves in a poor position as the market changes. Read these two recent articles to get some perspective regarding the predicament Canon and Nikon are in:

T3 - you know fine well that the links you posted are no more than the opinion of a couple journalists. Well argued? perhaps, factual and indicative of the future? You would have to be very gullible to uncriticallly accept the information at face value.

MilC man, I have been using mirrorless since 2009, SLRs for ever and DSLRs for a good ten years.

I really don't think we are looking at a one or the other situation, DSLRs and rangefinders are likely to continue albeit the proportions may change and for sure, the DSLR market will be smaller than mirrorless . However I really don't think canon listen to people like me and make large corporate decisions based on individual opinion, that is a silly assertion.

The future is never certain, current trends are a progressive shrinking in demand for all, with more competition. For the first time ever there are three clear alternative systems to Sony FF mirrorless. It is early days to know how this will pan out, for sure one swallow does not make a summer looking at recent trends. The industry must think it worth their while to make both mirrorless and DSLRs and for sure some will buy them.As for the a priori assumptions which is best, if you can't see it in the image, it don't matter.

@George1958 - "The industry must think it worth their while to make both mirrorless and DSLRs and for sure some will buy them."

I think we are going to see the last round of DSLR introductions. After that, DSLRs will likely go into a state of development stasis, just like film SLRs. Canon stopped film SLR development with the EOS 1V, Nikon stopped film SLR development with the F6. They continued to make them for quite some time. I believe the F6 is still in production. But it has remained unchanged since its introduction in 2004. The same will likely happen with DSLRs. If Nikon releases a D6 DSLR it will probably be the last of its kind, just like the F6 was.

T3 - plausible argument , but we will need to wait and see if you are right while keeping an open mind to the other possibilities, niche products that solider on because a few committed folk want to buy them, etc

@T3 Well, Theese days the imaging unit isn't always the biggest one for Nikon FYI. What many dont know is that they are succesfull in the FPD and semiconductor industry too. Last I heard is that 50% of the turnover comes from outside imaging business. But sure imaging sector is still important.

There wont be any more high end DSLR's developed from CaNikon. But the tipping point were mirrorless got bigger than DSLR in volume was last year when CaNikon intoduced the mirrorless cameras. And the result is that Sony has dropped from a 50% market share in ML to ~30-35%.

Sony have had their problems along the way too - meaning there are no straight roads, there is always ups & downs (like corners on a road) which lowers the speed.

This joke was so funny I forgot to laugh.This does potentially open up a number of really sharp lens options for Nikon Mirrorless. Will be interesting to see if the AF speed claims bear out in the real world.

The ILC market today is still probably twice the size the ILC market was in 1987 when Canon launched the EOS system. You also have to remember that camera bodies are only part of the sales equation. The other big part of the equation is lens sales. Look at lens sales over the years:

This whole "better optical company" nonsense is a myth. We are long past the days of lenses being designed by veteran craftsmen toiling away at a workbench. Today's lenses are the product of computers and engineers. As for any lens expertise, Sony has bought the expertise Minolta and Zeiss. That's what big companies do these days: they buy the expertise they need. Apple does it, Microsoft does it, Sony does it. They bring it in-house. Who knows, maybe someday Sony will buy Nikon and bring them in-house too :)

Mike: the "Z" and "R" mounts are fundamentally better than Sony's. This will help Sony users who want to migrate to Nikon. It is a good thing for Nikon. Just like when some Canon users migrated to Sony, having an adapter that they could use their existing lenses with was a nice crutch.

Not thinking many Sony users will migrate to Nikon given Sony’s current offerings vs. Nikon’s current offerings. And it seems you keep drinking Nikon and Canon’s koolaid about the mount diameter giving them all this flexibility. I read many posts in Sony groups and there is little if ANY discussion about moving from Sony E to Nikon Z in those groups. Nikon doesn’t currently offer any compelling reason to existing Sony users. And most (but not all) Sony users are ok with the ergonomics and the weather sealing. So that isn’t gonna do it.

@Arun The "Z" and "R" mounts are not fundamentally better than Sony's, they just MAY allow more flexibility to develop lenses with a wide aperture or wide angle... There is, however, not any proof of that yet... There is no Sony equivalent for Canon's RF 50mm f/1.2, but this Canon lens just ain't sharp... You should better buy a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art, also much cheaper... Should we also speak about wide angle lenses? Do you know any better lenses than Sony's 16-35mm f/2.8 or 12-24mm f/4?

@Arun H - "Mike: the "Z" and "R" mounts are fundamentally better than Sony's. This will help Sony users who want to migrate to Nikon."

The proof is in the pudding, and we haven't seen anything beyond theoretical arguments that would compel someone to change just for the mount. For example, many people made the argument that the Canon EF mount (54mm) was "fundamentally better" than the Nikon F mount (44mm). But the size of the mount wasn't why people switched. It was because Canon had better AF technology and better overall system technology. That was the main driving force, not the dimensions of the mount. That technological advantage now applies to Sony as well. And on top of that Canon was a juggernaut of a company with lots of money, faster development cycles, and better marketing-- which also now applies to Sony.

Also, forget about Sony "switchers". The R and Z mounts aren't even that popular with existing Canon and Nikon users, as indicated by the poor sales of these bodies.

"Nikon is a better optical company and the Z mount is the better mount."

What I find really astonishing is how little some of you guys learn from what you observe. Not a day goes past where someone like you doesn't describe Sony cameras as 'toys' or 'playstations', or claim they are shortly to quit the business with their hugely inferior mount.

Haven't you learnt anything from the last ten months? Open your eyes friend. Sony is a lens manufacturer, sensor manufacturer and camera manufacturer. They are the leader in sales in FF and the leader in technology. They have the best AF system, the best sensors and many of the best and most innovative lenses on the market - including the 135/1.8, which breaks new ground in lens design and is the first non-zoom lens to employ two independently actuated optical groups as well as four linear motors.

It is the sharpest lens they have tested, resolving almost 80% contrast at 50 lp / mm int he centre. Roger even tested it at 100 lp / mm and said this:

"At 100 lp/mm the Sony 135mm f/1.8 GM has a higher MTF than most excellent primes do at 50 lp / mm. If you don’t speak MTF, basically that means this lens can resolve fine details that would be a blur on excellent lenses."

Then you come along with uniformed comment - "Nikon is a better optical company and the Z mount is the better mount." You really - really -don't know what you're talking about.

I wouldn't argue here who is better than who as a company, but being able to use all the Loxia on the Z7 is a really really cool thing because I am not a huge fan of my A7R II body but really love the Z, one more reason I switch to the Z body.

Sure Nikon is doing something right, hopefully they will be successful, but it won't be easy.... Having a larger mount vs. Sony will help only in a very few cases... Who needs a manual focus 58mm F 0.95 Lens? Sony has already many tremendous lenses and ...technology...

@Arun H - it's not Nikon who's 'doing something right' here, may I remind you that the article is about a third-party adapter, something that Nikon clearly stated they did not want to see (since they didn't disclose the mount specifications). And it's about mounting Sony FE lenses, you know, these ones that you consider inferior because the mount is so narrow.

Maybe I should be relieved that you consider mounting Sony lenses as 'something right' because then it would show that you have learnt a little something in those ten months instead of reashing the same BS that has not exactly stood the test of time ever since.

Yes.. All of Nikon’s lenses will be big lenses thanks to that diameter. And they have more flexibility to build a lens they haven’t built yet. Let me know when they build one that can’t be built with the Sony format.

That's really good news. I wouldn't have thought that Nikon makes it so easy to hack the electronic protocol of the Z mount within less than a year. Or did Nikon possibly support TechArt? The Z6 + Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 appear like an amateur's dream now.

Does anyone know if the adapter transfers lens correction data to the camera as well?

Yes, today. But what will you do tomorrow, after next Nikon's update? When all of new Nikon's bodies will stop reading ANY third-party gears? Nikon's protocols are not open, and never will, so, they have rights to act like this.

I think Hell will freeze over if a Nikon shooter put a Sony lens on there body... Nikon shooters are very loyal.. I’m A Sony shooter and know their lenses are good but overpriced.. Pretty sure a Sony shooter would not buy the new Nikon and a Nikon shooter already has there own dslr lenses..

People said "Nikon shooters are very loyal" back in the 1990s when Canon EOS was still a new system. And yet, Nikon users switched to Canon in droves, which is how Canon was able to overtake Nikon in the market and in the pro ranks. Then in the 2000s when Canon had FF DSLRs (and Nikon did not), even more Nikon users switched to Canon. It's a total myth that "Nikon shooters are very loyal." History has disproven this myth. Sure, there are *some* users who are very loyal. But this is true of any brand.

@Rubberdials, what your thoughts on: "..fingers would be squeezed in the cramped space between the lens and that unergonomic grip." You tried to defend Sony with a whataboutism on Nikon's f.mount, but did not address what he actually wrote. Does this mean you actually agree that there is room for improvement on Sony's grip to mount spacing?

Rubber is a brand fanatic, and it’s quite tiresome.There are other cameras , I got Panasonic, Olympus and Nikon cameras.I even have a couple Sony cameras but I use them as door stops of as they’re best suited for that.

Interesting. I think I'm going to use it (plus a cheap smart Canon EOS to Sony E adapter) for mounting my TS-E lenses on my Z7. I'm really tired of waiting for the announced (but never released) Kipon Canikon adapter...

I think the biggest appeal is probably for the (few) people who would go from Sony to Nikon, and not want to buy new glass. But yes, many NIkon users will probably have some F-mount glass already and thus would not need this.

Good news! I have the Zeiss Batis 40mm and 85mm, and this makes me more comfortable considering other E-mount zeiss primes, knowing that I have another option when my current Sony body wears out / breaks. Always good to have options...

I am extremely curious. Did they actually manage to make an adapter with full electronic functionality only 2mm thick? That sounds amazing. I wonder whether it's actually a little thicker and using the fact that most modern lenses fokus past infinity to enable adaptation to varying temperatures.

Judging from the images (plenty on their website) i would say yes, it's only 2mm thick. Also a 2mm thick metal ring is pretty strong, so that should not be a issue.However they manage to take advantage of the larger opening of the Z mount to hide there the electronics. Probably if it were the same diameter it was a tougher job.

It's more than 2mm if you look closely. The 2mm are visible and needed to have the same flange distance (18mm instead of 16mm), but the adapter goes inside the mount too, thus it's larger than 2mm and gives extra space for the PCB.

A more demanding camera with hybrid af, like the a9, but even the a73, requires af adjustments that dslr lenses were simply not designed for. Both the af motor and the communication protocols need a serious upgrade to keep up.

Adapting F lenses brings multiple problems:1) it requires a huge adapter, defeating the purpose of a compact system2) those lenses are outdated, they just don't perform anywhere as good as mirrorless lenses such as FE or Z, the AF is also really slow

If Nikon releases an amazing body, I might get it, and if that adapter works fine, then I could get something like that amazing sony 24mm 1.4, as there isn't any F lens that can compete against it.

Exactly, RF will be adapted to Z, it's just a matter of time. RF to E is very unlikely but possible (because the E has a shorter flange distance) in theory with extra vignetting, as the mount is shorter, and it would need to be 2mm long.

There's also a reason that Sony, Nikon and Canon don't all adopt a single standard mount. They want people to buy their own lenses. Sony is probably the most open about their mount, being that the E-mount is apparently an open design so anyone could adopt it, but keep in mind that people are more likely to spend more on lenses than bodies so I would think that lens sales for any brand is one of it's major sources of revenue from its respective camera division.

I mean it would be nice to have just one standard and that way you could choose the body you wanted and know that any lens would work on it (within the same sensor format of course). But at the same time, there is a reason that they all don't adopt one mount. This is also one of the (few) advantages to m4/3. It is a standard mount but unfortunately, there are only a few companies in the market (in terms of cameras).

"There's also a reason that Sony, Nikon and Canon don't all adopt a single standard mount. They want people to buy their own lenses"- Which is very silly reasoning. Because this way only their camera system users will buy their lenses. And they are denying the option for all the rest.

"people are more likely to spend more on lenses than bodies"- Exactly right.

"it would be nice to have just one standard"- Yes. Of course. And that would have many advantages for both photographers and camera companies. They wouldn't have to produce the whole range of standard lenses just to please the average customer. They could stick to what they can do best. I mean, if Canon makes the best 70-200F2.8, then Nikon wouldn't have to make whatever 70-200F2.8 (before they develop a better lens, or until they'll have nothing better to do) just because people need one.

Nikon has a very nice 300F4E PF and it would be fantastic if we could adapt it to Canon RF mount with decent AF performance.

"There's also a reason that Sony, Nikon and Canon don't all adopt a single standard mount. They want people to buy their own lenses"- Which is very silly reasoning. Because this way only their camera system users will buy their lenses. And they are denying the option for all the rest.

From a consumer stand point maybe it might seem silly. But from a manufacturer's standpoint is makes total sense. They all are trying to protect their systems and force you to buy their lenses.

You and I are on the other end of the sale here, so it's easier for us to say they should do this and that their reasoning is silly.... But to a company, doing so could mean that they lose a ton of sales in lenses, and they know people will need lenses for their cameras.

This is one area that I think Sony may semi-regret making the E-mount system "open." There are a lot of E-Mount lenses out there that rival the higher-priced Sony lenses, which makes it harder for Sony to justify their prices especially if the third party lens does the same job at roughly the same price. Nikon and Canon have the same problem, but to a lesser extent I feel. And I think they realize the potential loss of sales by making their mounts open or adopting a standard mount.

Look, Nikon can't "force" me to buy their lenses, because I don't use Nikon cameras. Same thing with Sony. But if I could mount Nikon lenses on my Canon cameras natively, then I would definitely be interested in getting some exceptional Nikon optics. Not only me, millions of people actually.Third party lenses are not the problem. Bad strategy is the problem. They can dream about "forcing" us to spend our money on their products all they want. The reality is that they can't force us to do anything. If we stop buying their products, they are done, finished, kaput, end of story. They need to offer their best stuff and leave the rest for those who can do it better. They can't just throw whatever mediocre products at their customers without any consequences. And my point is that with a standard mount, they wouldn't need to. They would simply make and sell more of their best lenses. Because their audience would be the whole market, not just 20-30% of it.

No offence but why would anybody bother to mount Sony lens on technically inferior camera? This looks to me like solution for non existing problem. Now make adapter Canon RF on Sony FE. RF 50 1.2 would be interesting to try.

I was thinking the reverse. Why would you want to put Sony lenses on any camera outside of Sony. I mean Sony limited their mount and will never see the cool fast lenses that Nikon and Canon are producing.

Thomas - sadly, it’s the kind of comment that permeates DPR these days - driven in part by the technological advances that digital photography has ‘allowed’ over the years, so ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ (as it was in the early Mpx race’) has become the overriding factor for some.

Not for me - I have constantly acknowledged that Sony currently have the best AF system - good for them, but the general feel/handling/ergo of Sony cameras is (for me) appalling and there is no ‘technology’ argument that can change that.

The Z6 handles and performs magnificently - the AF still needs tweaking, sure, - but the S lenses so far are superb (I have four out of the current 5) and the legacy F mount lenses work flawlessly. The 300pf in particular is a stunner - why on earth would you put a Sony lens on there at all?

@wats0nSony could possibly do 1.2 lenses. Would you pay $2500 for 50 1.2 if you can get 50 1.4 at $1500 with 95% of 1.2 performance? Many are complaining that 1.4GM lenses are already pricey, now making 1.2 lenses and add 30-50 % into price for pretty much no benefits makes no sense.

@Stevie I agree Sony has great image quality and an extensive feature set , but the general feel and ergonomics just do not work for me. I have been using them for a few years now so I am speaking from my direct experience. As I shoot mainly landscapes and macro my AF needs are minimal so this adapter will allow me to use my favourite FE mount lenses on a body I prefer. The brand fanatic nonsense is actually comical , there are wonderful talented photographers producing stunning results with every make and type of camera.

@StevieFIn which world are the new Nikon Z lenses superb?The prime lenses have horrible bokeh to the point it bothers me - even though I normally don't care much about bokeh.The lenses are rather slow considering their above-average size and the 35mm f1.4 has a lot of CA. Contrast is average at best.

They are sharper in the corner than older designs. At the cost of poor bokeh transition and rendering, big prize, aperture speed and size. The manual focus experience is pretty bad as well and the build quality (in terms of feel) is nothing to write home about.And the 24-70mm f2.8 Z performs noticeably worse than the over 7(!!!) years old Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II.The f/4 zooms are a nice compromise.Everything else they released is just embarrassing especially considering they completely wasted all the potential the bigger mount could give them so far.

STacking might work... but I wouldn't expect it to be as reliable as one single adapter.... especially given that people sometimes already have problems with a single adapter (not referring to anyone specifically but in general) I would think adding more via stacking would just multiply the potential problems.

Can you imagine sony, canon, nikon, panasonic etc agreeing on standards and implementations to the mount? If it was established in the first place it may be ok at first. But what about updates regarding software on the lens side of things?

Technically it would be a interface agreement sort of thing, but each party is probably wary of waiting on the other. But they, sigma, pana, and leica formed an alliance. That is as close to universal as you are gonna get at the moment. Since you are all for it go for that option?

What incentive is there for any of the companies to work together to make a universal mount?They would all prefer you to buy their cameras to mount their lenses on.For the consumer wanting to swap brands and 3rd party lens manufacturers it makes sense, but for the major camera companies, not so much.There are plenty of adaptors out there if you need them that do a good job, Sony users took advantage of that for years while Sony fleshed out their lens offerings. Nikon and Canon already have adaptors to migrate their own lenses to their new mirrorless bodies, specifically to allow their users to migrate to those new systems while they fill in their new lens line-ups and would much prefer you to buy their new lenses than adapt someone elses.

I think the appeal of the Techart TZE-01 adapter is to quickly fill in gaps in the Nikon Z line-up, gain access to other lens mount adapters (such as the Techart LA-EA7 AF adapter), while still gaining access to the AF-S/SWM Nikon lenses via the FTZ adapter. In fact Nikon allows complete functionality with the FTZ adapter like C-AF focus in video with F-mount lenses. Sony doesn't offer continuous video focusing with either the LA-EA3 and LA-EA4 adapters for the Sony A-Mount or any other brand mount adapter.

All these mirrorless lenses (including Sony - I checked) have distortion and vignetting software correction coded into RAW and Jpeg files. This processing is done in camera so using the Techart adapter would leave the Nikon image files without any correction data. I can't see that working very well. Since this data is embedded in camera firmware to be written into RAW files its not available separately for use in Lightroom etc AFAIK.

@bakanecko But where do you find the lens correction data for Sony lenses? With Z lenses you get the corrections applied to jpeg in camera or added as data to the RAW for use by post software. No need to go looking for them, or having to re-export all your jpegs. You're going to have to really want a particular Sony lens to go down this route. I'm not seeing this as a huge market.

Yes, no internal correction, so what? Since when it is not possible to create your own manual correction presets for the lenses? I've used Sony A7-2 with Canon lenses and never felt I missed that auto correction data.

@syberman7 like many manual lenses correction in post processing? You try to find it yourselves and then create a presets. Or find it in forum from someone else, etc. Not a big deal, i dealt with these frequently.

People have survived without having in-camera lens profile correction done in the camera. IN fact, some probably prefer to do it themselves or use a profile in post processing. Yes it probably speeds up the workflow is the camera does the correction for you, but it's not the end of the world if it doesn't and one shouldn't really discount a camera because of it not having that function.

Did you hear that Z shooters, time to get your pre-order in for the fe 200-600 or go super cheap and start out with a 24 or 35 samyang 2.8 for $260. That is pretty cool and good for Sony and Nikon, and Techart.

Or one could also get a Tamron 150-600 G2 for $1400. I don't think any Nikon users would be up for buying the Sony 200-600. I'm not saying it's a bad lens or anything, but for a Nikon shooter to purchase one would be a bit pointless when you already have cheaper options that do pretty much the same thing, for less money.

Also, me personally, I would rather adapt an F-mount with the FTZ since it's a native adapter, even if the 200-500 or 150-600 weren't quite up to the quality of the 200-600 mainly because the adapter (FTZ) is designed by Nikon to work with their cameras, whereas the Techart adapter was probably designed through reverse-engineering and may not be as reliable.

Lens mount is a way to get people into their eco system.Sole reason for Sony to still support APS-C is to get people into their eco system. Out of a marketing point of view the 'one mount' strategy Sony offers is quite smart as these people are then more likely they stay.

This is also why the new lens mount strategy of both Canon and Nikon has some risks to it.

If you need all new lenses anyway then why stay with the brand if you are dissatisfied over the brand offerings.

@Duncan M "If you need all new lenses anyway then why stay with the brand ..."

As someone who uses Sony A mount I have been saying the exact same thing ever since Sony brought out the E mount. Sony do not, as you said above, have "one mount" just as Canon and Nikon do not.

"This is also why the new lens mount strategy of both Canon and Nikon has some risks to it."

Which are the same risks Sony faced with introducing their new lens mount. It's stopped me investing in Sony A mount lenses and upgrading my A77. When that packs in, all options are on the table given I can't use my Sony lenses natively on the latest Sony E mount bodies without an adapter.

If someone brings out an adapter for Sony A mount lenses to use on Canikon mirrorless there is no reason to stick with Sony.

@Oddie,The Sony A mount has been dead for awhile. So don't expect anything. Canon has gone with 2 future mounts, the M and R mounts. Nikon killed off their smaller mount. So Nikon may too just be Z mount and we don't know if a smaller sensor will be placed inside that mount yet. The EF and F mounts are dead, just will take a little time to be accepted.

@ Oddie why would you think that sony A mount glass is going to work better on a Canikon mirrorless than they do on the current and future Sony E-mount bodies? after all sony is the one that makes the A-mount to E-mount adapterswhich reduces possible compatibility issues I highly doubt that Canikon are going to make those adapters as long they are still selling their own lenses fact is the sony A-mount is a dead mount there is just no market for these adapters IMHO

@Aaron@Utah Where did I say A mount glass is going to work better on Canikon? It doesn't work perfectly with Sony's own adapters on E mount so I have no expectations beyond that.

Then again some people seem pretty excited about an E mount to Z mount adapter so why not an A mount to Z mount adapter provided by a 3rd party? Easier to make as it would be deeper.

For me adapted lenses are a stop gap. The idea of faffing about switching the adapter between lenses is just something likely to stop me using the whole system. I have both SSM and screw mount lenses and the adapter for the screw mounts is more cost and a real cludge.

So if I have to switch mounts once my camera packs in its time to sell up. I'd use an adapter for as long as it took to go fully native on the new system. I guess that will make one manufacturier happy but I am not limiting my choice to Sony. I might even just go the whole hog, skip the adapter phase and go smaller to m43 or Fuji.

@dbateman I am not expecting anything off Sony. Just making the point that introducing a new mount has the potential to alienate users of the old mount who are faced with either faffing about with an adapter or buying new lenses.

Duncan M was arguing the "one mount" strategy was a good one to get people into your ecosystem as a manufacturer and would make users more likely to stay. I was pointing out Sony did not have one mount and many were already in the Sony A mount ecosystem, some old Mintola users and others such as me who bought in with an A100 who are no more likely to stay than leave given the different mount.

in short, none of the big three will do this. As mentioned, each wants you in their camera system, and the way to do that it to get you locked into their mount system so you have to buy their lenses (or at least for their mount). It would be nice if you could choose a camera body and whatever lens you wanted (whatever brand you wanted) and know that it will work, as you can then get the best of both worlds, but it is very unlikely to happen.

Oh man, you play so well this troll game, you might get a champ ring untill the end of the year. Instead of Thougts R Steff Us, new troll king might be Duncan Kawhi M...Oh wait, you're same entity... :)))

Or a company has realized there is a potential for profit and made this adapter in the hopes they earn a profit. There are many fine e-mount lenses available and only a few z lenses so they took a shot. It was a good call. Most photogs are not like the azzhat fanboys here on dpreview and use multiple brands so again, it makes sense. Good for Nikon shooter and Sony/Nikon shooters and I'm guessing Zeiss is pretty happy with Techart.

@DuncanN - Well false logic. TechArt create adapter because Sony E lens line up is the biggest in milc world, have bigest milc market share and the obliviously find logic and profit to make Nikon Z users, who have very few but good native lenses, more happy with E mount lenses.

It was done because of 2mm and they could. There is great e glass available that is not in F-mount or z-mount, that is a fact. They started designing this and had a prototype out just a month or two after Nikon released the first Z, as shown on SAR at the time, well before the mass exodus of Sony users to Nikon.

@AlexLex - What is your problem? You look much agitated as if your self esteem is at stake and feel insecure. Be happy with whatever you own.

If that is a Sony then that is entirely fine with me. Sony may be your brand, but that doesn't mean I have to buy myself a Sony too. You look like a lost convert that is unable to sell your belief to somebody else.

@DuncanM - I utterly dislike people/accounts like you, cause you ruined this place, fanboysm, twisting facts according to your agenda, lying etc etc.. DPR use to be a cool place, now it's infested with trolls and fanboys like you...

AlexLee, iI think you need to calm down. This is his opinion and it may have some weight.I disagree that just because they can, they did opinion. Why not make a M43rds adapter to Nikon Z mount?This company saw a new mount with few lenses and jumped quickly to add more. Maybe some Sony users were Nikon users and may go back.Funny thing is when E mount was first out the lens selection sucked. So companies released a M43rds adapter to E mount. Its manual only but was used to add lenses. Still more of every type of lens over there, only thing missing is a true non modified tilt shift lens.

Or Nikon users who bought a Z realize that Sony has a much better mirrorless lens selection, so this company is trying to capitalize on this opportunity. It also means that it makes it that much easier for a Nikon Z body user to switch over to a Sony body down the road. I don't see Nikon being able to keep up with Sony's pace of development. Sony is just too powerful, they have too much of a technological advantage, they have much more money than Nikon. So this is a way for a Nikon Z buyer to hedge his bets.

Please educate me.Sony mount is smaller. Z is bigger.Sony has 135mm 1.8 with their mount, it seems Z could have 135mm 1.4? maybe 1.2?85mm 1.0? 1.1?F mount is smaller and has 105 1.4. So Z mount 105 1.2 possible?Only matter of time before Sigma/Nikon do it?Can size be estimated how big those lenses will be? Too heavy/big?Or there is really limited 'need' for such lenses and they would never be commercially successful so never made?

Yes, that is why Nikon is skipping the 1.4 standard this time around & instead will be making 1.2's instead for their primes. 35mm 1.2 & 50mm f1.2. Now their f1.8's are relatively smaller while transmitting a better image while maintaining lighter weight all while having 2-3aspherical/2-3 ED elements. Their f1.2's will be beefy though.

Alot of ppl dont get that their 58mm f0.95 will give you cleaner, sharper brighter images compared to competitors offerings because Nikons glass is made to their Zmounts exact specs while the third parties like mitakon were made to Sony's inferior mount specs.

Alll you have to do have uber fast lenses on a smaller mount is have the rear element farther away from the sensor. The only advantage to the larger mount is that their uber fast lenses can be a tiny bit shorter.

“Akihiko Obama: “you can tell that the front lens element is much smaller. The curve gets flatter, enabling us to make it much smaller, and easy to attach a filter...The Z-mount is actually a great contributor to the downsizing of the camera, of the mount itself,.......

Dave Etchells: It seems it's very significant that the larger mount let you use the symmetric design, neh? It's *so* small. [Ed. Note: The new 14-30mm f/4 lens really is surprisingly small for such a wide-angle optic.]“

And so GoodKnight, now that your example has rather revealed that the lenses are of the same dimensions, rather than one being much smaller than the other, can you please keep on educating me with other lenses? Like for instance the Nikon 50 1.8 which is longer, larger and almost twice heavier than the Sony 55 1.8? or the 24-70 f4 which is also larger and heavier than the Sony?

Your argument holds to some extent, if you compare ML lenses with older DSLR lenses. But among ML lenses, really, that's the usual 'my mount's better than yours' BS that you are parroting here.

It is true that EF-M’s back-flange distance is 18mm, shorter than RF’s 20mm, but that is only one part of the story. Actual RF lenses have constructs behind the bayonet that can be deeper than 2mm, meaning it won’t physically fit in the cavity of an EF-M mount body.

The other way around—EF-M lenses on RF bodies—is actually more realistic, in spite of the apparently conflicting back flange distance. RF mount is designed to allow lenses to protrude their rearmost element well behind the bayonet, so (based on toying with my EF-M lenses and EOS R) it seems mechanically possible to have a mount adapter that “sinks” 2mm into the RF body to accommodate EF-M lenses.

With me so far? Now comes the fun part. Did you know that EF-M and E mounts have almost identical physical dimensions? If it’s possible for EF-M, it’s probably possible for E too. Hmmmm....

Addendum: while I’m not sure that EF-M/RF or E/RF adapters are actually possible, I do believe that the above argument means very few, if any, third-party E mount lenses will require optical re-design to be converted to RF.

Interesting, but I see 2 issues here...1: How long before a Nikon firmware update breaks the adapter, and,2: How good will the images look without all the software corrections most mirrorless lenses require.

Finally, I would wait for real world testing and first adopter reports before getting too excited.

Good point, but as a gear reviewer myself, I think it will be really interesting for these types of adapters to exist, so that we can see the real un-corrected vignetting of certain lenses. Nikon Z sensors could become the testbed for a lot of other lenses! That's good news for Nikon, period, as their name could be constantly mentioned in all types of other brand gear reviews.

Just a thought. I wouldn't trust the claims of AF or IBIS compatibility until real-world reports are out, either. Guess I better get to work reviewing it and making a real world report!

happily the adapter has a firmware update option, so any future problem is going to be fixed (assuming they don't go bankrupt or something). I guess that if you use a lot of adapted glass, you shouldn't be the one that puts every firmware update first.

"You'd never thought that this company might actually got some help from Nikon. Just to put a heel on Sony? Thought so...."

No one thought they did because that would be a stupid thought.

Unlike Sony E which is an open standard, the Nikon Z mount is not. Nikon did not publish the spec deliberately so the idea they helped a small 3rd party company by giving them the specs for the Z mount is absurd.

If Nikon wanted an adapter to encourage Sony uses to migrate they would have made one themselves and then Nokon users would be guaranteed it would work and would continue to work.

It is obvious this adapter has been reverse engineered and so like all such reverse engineering, runs the risk of ceasing to work down the line.

To the sony e-mount being open, I'm wondering if Sony is maybe kicking themselves now for making the E-mount open.... I mean they've made it easier for third parties (ie. competitors) to develop lenses that could very well be a lot better and cheaper than what Sony itself is offering (I mean, we've seen this already in some cases, where the Tamron or Sigma is better and cheaper than the Sony offering). And it's not like Sony can go back to making the E-mount design "private" or closed again. That would require changing the mount or its design, which would break pretty much everything in the Sony line-up today. So maybe there is some logic behind Nikon and Canon not being as forthcoming with their mount specs as Sony has been. I'm sure Sony did it for good reason--to try to come up with a standard mount everyone can adopt, but at the same time, I think this has sort of hurt them too.

Of course one can ask the question why adapt Sony lenses when Nikon has a boatload of DSLR lenses that can be adapted and the adapter is often free when buying a Z camera anyway. Unless there's a specific lens Sony has like the 135 f/1.8 GM or the little gem Loxia 21 f/2.8 that you really want.

@Thematic I am perplexed by DXO lens reviews. I have both systems, and I have not tried 14-30 yet, but 24-70 f/4 compared equal to Sony 24-105 f/4 (in similar zoom range), 50 S is better that 55mn Carl Zeiss, and 35 if almost as good as the best (Sigma 35mm). I have not tried 24-70 f/2.8 but it is best if the best according to most reviews.

Getting close to my ideal of owning a Z7 with small lens..Could use this adapter with small full-frame e-mount lens. (result is much smaller than using Nikon adapter and Nikon 50mm.)Is there a small lens around 42mm for FF E-mount?

@aloli Good thought, made me look at their range, and decided I'll go for the much smaller Samyang 35mm, even though it's a bit wider.Mounted on the diminutive Z7, it'll be a really small package with high resolution.

Exactly, I will be using only all my Zeiss Loxia and Voigtlander primes from Sony system and don't care for the Sony lens, I do have a few GM lenses but that's not the reason I am getting this adapter, for big lens I would rather use those on my D850 and 1D series bodies,

If Nikon Z owners start buying Sony lenses and equip each with this adapter, the biggest winner would be Sony, followed by Techart. Nikon can still see a positive side to all of this, as their Z-mount cameras are now more attractive, but they might see an impact in lens sales. Which begs the question - why didn't Nikon just join E-mount to begin with? If they created a mount with a super short flange distance, the next step (third party adapters) was just inevitable. If they joined E-mount they'd have a chance to sell their lenses to Sony users. I here there are quite a few of those now...

Are you serious? Why would Sony want to join E mount? This is really only useful to Sony owners who already own E mount glass who want to switch to Nikon. There is also the question of how long before Nikon breaks this in a firmware update.

@GodSpeaks you question ("Why would Sony want to join E mount?") doesn't add up. Sony is already using E-mount. They can't join what they founded.

Now, if you're asking "Why would Nikon want to join E mount?", then the answer is the same as why did Panasonic wanted to join L-mount. There's strength in numbers. A mount is more attractive to users when there are already cameras and lenses available. The more users find something attractive, the more users are likely to buy it.

If you're asking "Why would Sony want Nikon to allow Nikon to join E mount?", then here too the answer is as above, with the added aspect of permanently making Canon an also-ran.

I know and it will never be compatible either.Never been their strategy and with good reason. E-Mount is a bad design anyway. Sensor in the Sony's is placed beyond the edge of the mount already. But telling that to the Sony people is asking for a lot of hatred.

@Prognathous, yes, my bad. I meant why would NIKON want to use Sony E mount. Nikon already has a very long history of good lenses and will continue to do so. They have no need for what is now the smallest and most restrictive FF mount. Right off the bat, Z users have access to all (well, most) of Nikon's long list of F mount lenses via Nikon's own F to Z mount adapter. No need to look elsewhere.

As for Panasonic, why reinvent the wheel when you can buy into an existing mount by a company they are already partnering with... Leica.

A lens mount is not made to attract people for 1-2 years, and then a new one is released (like a new flagship phone that obsoletes the previous model, released in the previous year; and that becomes itself obsolete when the next model is released). A lens mount is made to last at least decades.

From this point of view, because of the possibilites the larger mount diameter offers, IN THE LONG RUN, Nikon Z, Canon RF & the "L-mount Alliance" are all superior to Sony's smaller (Nikon F-like diameter) mount.

As well as that, any camera manufacturer's system of lenses takes years to cover all the focal needs (zooms, primes, macros, T&S, special purposes etc.). Think of what Sony had in native FE lenses when they released the first A7.

It took these years to make a quite complete Sony FF lens system; Canon was fast with many RF offerings, Nikon seems slower.

@catlyn - E-mount is actually superior, because it doesn't prevent Sony from building class-leading optics (just look at their G Master range and drool), but does allow them to build compact APS-C mirrorless cameras that are almost as small as m43 and are priced to match. Not everyone needs or wants a behemoth. Sony uses E-mount for both FF and APS-C, which makes it practically superior. If you're into what's practical and not what theoretically may be better suited to build a $6000 58mm/0.95 lens, then it's actually the more attractive mount.

@Prognathous - "..E-mount is actually superior..." Agreed! Larger mount with superior lenses is more a marketing gimmick IMO. Do you remember the Nikon's months long MILC teasers and the Canon R slogan "Be the Revolution." We all know how it went.

I'll not comment on the Z f/2.8s at the moment since there are no available data. However, based on DXO results, the Z50mm f/1.8 and couple of Z f4 zoom are quite disappointing. Take the Z50mm f/1.8 for instance, it's rated at 37pMP in sharpness per DXO and received a gold award from Dpreview. Meanwhile, both Sigma Art and Sony equivalent are rated at 40pMP to 41pMP when they were introduced a few years earlier. It's clear that Nikon has improved its optics when compared to older F mounts, but it's still behind competitors despite the bigger mount. As far as Canon R is concerned, their 50 f1.2 R is only marginally better than the old one. Sigma and Sony optics set the standards at the moment not mount size.

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